In the Balkans, the confrontation between Serbs and Kosovars sharply escalated due to the mutual non-recognition of car numbers.
The confrontation between Serbia and Kosovo escalated sharply after the Kosovar authorities, in response to the same measure, stopped allowing cars with Serbian numbers on their territory.
Pristina sent special forces to the border, and Belgrade threatened to send an army into Kosovo if NATO forces located there did not respond to the conflict. Correspondent.net tells the details.
“Pressure on the European Union”
Another conflict between the authorities of partially recognized Kosovo and the Serbs living in its northern part began on September 20, when the authorities ordered not to let cars with Serbian numbers into Kosovo.
Under the new rules, all owners of such cars must, when entering Kosovo, put temporary Kosovar numbers, which are valid for two months, and a duty of five euros must be paid.
The Kosovar authorities explained their actions by the principle of reciprocity: Serbia, which does not recognize the independence of Kosovo, does not recognize their license plates either, so in order to enter Serbia since 2008, Kosovars need to receive temporary numbers by paying a fee.
Kosovo split from Serbia in 2008 and unilaterally declared independence from Belgrade. It was recognized by many European states, including Germany, as well as the United States.
Belgrade does not agree with this: it considers Kosovo its autonomous province and does not recognize the independence of Pristina. Serbia’s position is shared by Ukraine, Russia and most of the post-Soviet states, as well as China and India.
The new rules of Pristina did not suit the ethnic Serbs who live in the north of the unrecognized republic. They organized a protest, blocking two main border crossings on the border between Kosovo and Serbia, Yarine and Brnjak, with trucks.
The authorities pulled special forces units into the region and tried to disperse the protesters with tear gas, but this was not done, and the action continues to this day. Kosovo offered Serbia to recognize license plates on a reciprocal basis, but they did not respond.
Both sides blame each other for the escalation of the conflict. On September 23, Serbian media reported that in Kosovo, the police beat three Serbs at one of the checkpoints. The authorities in Pristina denied this information, but because of this, Serbia brought its troops on the border to full combat readiness.
“Serbia has increased its combat readiness [своих войск]but she did not raise the army and the police. Serbia did not enter the territory of Kosovo because we respect [Кумановское] agreement, we have no right to do so. We do not go [на Косово] with the troops, the main thing for us is peace, “said the President of the Republic, Alexander Vucic.
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The agreement in question was signed in the summer of 1999, it put an end to the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO countries and ensured the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army from Kosovo.
On September 25, Serbian Air Force fighters patrolled the border with Kosovo. On the same day, the Kosovo authorities said that unknown persons set fire to two offices of the Ministry of Internal Affairs near the border, noting that these episodes “show what would have happened at the border points if there were no special forces on duty there.”
Special Forces of Kosovo on the border with Serbia / EPA
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EU head of diplomacy Josep Borrell called on both sides to de-escalate. The special forces should be immediately withdrawn from the border, he noted, stressing that “any further provocation or unilateral and uncoordinated action is unacceptable.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also called on the parties for restraint and resumption of dialogue. The head of the alliance held telephone talks with the President of Serbia and the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti.
On the evening of September 26, Serbia itself came up with demands for NATO. Vucic said that Serbia will have to use its forces in response to the aggravation of the situation on the border with Kosovo in the event of an attack on the Kosovo Serbs and NATO inaction.
The head of state gave the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance 24 hours for them to react to the conflict situation.
Vucic noted that Serbia did not raise the army and the police, but only increased their readiness. He explained that the Serb forces did not enter the territory of Kosovo because they “have no right to do so” in accordance with the 1999 Kumanovo agreement and subsequent decisions.
“We will wait for you 24 hours so that you, as NATO, will react. And only if after that the pogrom of our population continues, Serbia will react and will not allow what happened in the 1990s and in 2004,” concluded Vucic.
On 27 September, NATO-led international mission forces in charge of Kosovo Stability (KFOR) arrived at checkpoint Yarine. These are the American, Canadian and Polish military.
“KFOR is closely monitoring the situation in Kosovo and remains focused on fulfilling its mandate under UNSCR 1244 of 1999 to provide security and freedom of movement for all communities living in Kosovo. KFOR has increased the number and duration of regular patrols in the territory Kosovo, including its north, “the NATO mission said.
Western countries demand the parties to the conflict to take the following steps to defuse tensions on the border: withdrawing Kosovo special forces, dismantling the barricades and lifting the Serbian blockade of the checkpoint. This should be followed by a resumption of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina on the normalization of relations.
The representative of the European Commission Dana Spinant on September 28 announced the date of the meeting of the officials of Serbia and Kosovo – it will be held in Brussels on Wednesday, September 29.
She noted that among the main issues on the agenda, the main one for Belgrade and Pristina is the topic of resolving the situation in the north of Kosovo and Metohija and restoring free movement in the region.
Belgrade foreign policy expert Bosko Jaksic considers the Serbian president’s tough statements “a kind of pressure” on Brussels to push Pristina to implement the agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Serbian Municipalities (CCM) in the north of Kosovo.
“It is very difficult from an international point of view to challenge the right of Pristina to take measures on the basis of reciprocity. Belgrade, in the absence of arguments (against the measures – ed.), Everything boils down to the creation of the CCM. Eight years ago, Pristina made this commitment, but did nothing really in this plan “, – quotes his Kommersant.
Former Kosovar politician and now political scientist and lawyer Azem Vlasi claims that the new crisis on the border is proceeding “in the style and according to the scenario of Aleksandr Vucic’s headquarters,” which would like to create an analogue of the Republika Srpska in Bosnia in the north of Kosovo.
“There will be no Republika Srpska in Kosovo. Unlike the Dayton Agreement on Bosnia, neither Marty Ahtisaari’s plan for Kosovo, nor the Kosovo constitution provide for this,” the expert is sure.
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